The delivery of drug species to the brain is ofttimes seriously limited by transport and metabolism factors and, more specifically, by the functional barrier of the endothelial brain capillary well deemed the blood-brain barrier, BBB. Site-specific delivery and sustained delivery of drugs to the brain are even more difficult, and to date no useful simple or generic techniques to achieve such phenomena are known to the art.
Indeed, the barriers separating plasma from the brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are complex systems involving passive and active transport and subserve a number of important functions. The boundary between plasma and the central nervous system (CNS) is much less permeable than that between plasma and other tissue cells to a variety of water soluble substances, such as organic electrolytes, organic acids and bases, as well as to large molecules such as proteins. Such a barrier also provides a path for clearance from the brain of the breakdown products of cellular metabolism. The CNS and its fluids can be considered basically a three-compartment system: the blood or the plasma, CSF and brain tissue. There is a diffusion-controlled exchange between CSF and the extracellular fluid (CF) of the brain. It has also been suggested that the permeabilities of blood-CSF and blood-brain barriers are practically identical with respect to drugs and other foreign substances. Mayer et al, J. Pharmacol. and Exp. Therap., 125, 185 (1959).
The BBB is, moreover, basically the result of the fact that the endothelial cells in the brain capillaries are joined by continuous, tight intercellular junctions, such that material has to pass through the cells rather than between them in order to move from blood to brain. It is interesting that there are areas within the brain, such as the subfornical body and the postremia in which the capillary cells are not closely linked so that they lack the characteristics of the BBB. They provide the entry of small amounts of compounds which would not ordinarily enter the barriers. Hoffmann and Olszewzki, Neurology (Minneap.), 11, 1081 (1961).
Foreign compounds which enter organs other than the central nervous system with ease, may penetrate the CNS slowly or hardly at all. A number of theories concerning the nature of the barrier have been proposed. The widely accepted concept describes the boundary as a fat-like layer interspersed with small pores, although the BBB is not a simple, anatomically well-defined unitary physical entity. Shuttleworth, Prog. Exp. Tumor Res., 17, 279 (1972). Penetration of such a barrier may occur by several processes: lipid soluble substances may passively penetrate into the cells, while small molecules such as water and urea may pass through the pores. In addition to these simple physical processes, carrier-mediated and active transport processes govern the movement of many molecules through the BBB. Thus, it is generally accepted that lipid solubility, degree of ionic dissociation or protonation and the ability of temporary combination with membrane constituents affect delivery through the BBB. It has been shown, for example, that in the class of barbiturates, a quantitative correlation could be established between their ease to pass into the brain (as reflected by the different times of onset of anesthetic action) and their lipid/water partition coefficient. Mark et al, J. Pharmacol. and Exp. Therap., 123, 79 (1957). The role of lipid solubility in drug penetration through the BBB is also exemplified by the better absorption of the sparingly water-soluble thiamine propyl disulfide (TPD) as compared to the water-soluble thiamine hydrochloride (THCl). Thomson et al, Ann. Int. Med., 74, 529 (1971). Some materials such as glucose and amino acids are transported by active mechanism, characterized by saturation, bidirectional molecular specificity, bidirectional competitive inhibition and bidirectional countertransport. Fishman, Am J. Physiol., 206, 836 (1964).
Changes in permeability of the BBB can be caused by several pathological and toxicological processes. Pardridge, Connor and Crawford, CRC Crit. Rev. Toxicol., 179 (1975). A general increase in the barrier permeability, such as a nonspecific breakdown of the barrier has, however, severe consequences, including cerebral edema.
It too is well documented that the BBB is relatively impermeable to the ionized forms of drugs and other molecules. Drugs which are weak organic electrolytes appear to pass from blood to CSF to reach a steady state ratio characteristic of each molecule according to its pK.sub.a and the existence of a normal pH gradient between blood and CSF. It is clear that it is the most difficult for quaternary pyridinium or ammonium salts to penetrate the BBB.
And removal of substances from the brain and CSF is obviously a significant factor in regulating drug concentrations in the CNS. There are several efflux processes: bulk flow via the arachnoid villi, diffusion of lipid soluble substances into brain and blood, active transport and metabolism by adjacent meninges. Once a drug or metabolite enters the CSF from blood or brain by simple diffusion, it may rapidly be removed, either by nonselective bulk flow or by active transport mechanism associated with the choroid plexus or other nondefined structures in the CSF compartment. It is generally accepted that highly lipid-soluble drugs leave the CSF more rapidly than poorly lipid-soluble ones, but the barrier to passage of compounds from CSF has only superficial similarity to the blood-CSF barrier.
Drug elimination processes from the brain are significantly directly related to drug accumulation in the brain. It is generally assumed that efflux in the opposite direction involves almost the same processes as for entry, except that the role of the bulk flow and the metabolic processes in the brain are not to be overlooked.
The two elimination processes studied in the earlier literature and which can be said to have a certain bearing on the present invention involve elimination from the brain of ionic species. Thus, it is found that non-metabolized inonic species, such as the acetate ion, have a three times slower elimination rate from the CSF than from the blood. Freundt, Arz., Forsch., 23, 949 (1973). An even more dramatic change in the elimination rate was found in the case of a quaternary piperidinium salt. The quaternary salt, formed in situ after delivery of a haloalkylamine, which undergoes cyclization to the quaternary salt, in the brain, as well, was found to have an at least ten times slower elimination rate from the brain than from the rest of the body. It was concluded by the authors (Ross and Froden, Eur. J. Pharmacol., 13, 46 [1970]) that the outflow rate of the quaternary salt corresponded to the inflow rate. Similar results were obtained for the erythrocytes: the efflux of the quaternary salt was very slow. Ross, J. Pharm. Pharmacol., 27, 322 (1975).
And while it too has been suggested to deliver a drug species, specifically N-methylpyridinium-2-carbaldoxime chloride (2-PAM), into the brain, the active nucleus of which in and of itself constituting a quaternary pyridinium salt, by way of the dihydropyridine latentiated prodrug form thereof, such approach is conspicuously delimited to relatively small molecule quaternary pyridinium ring-containing drug species and does not provide the overall ideal result of brain-specific, sustained release of the desired drug, with concomitant rapid elimination from the general circulation, enhanced drug efficacy and decreased toxicity. Hence, no "trapping" in the brain of the 2-PAM formed in situ results, and obviously no brain-specific, sustained delivery occurs as any consequence thereof; the 2-PAM is eliminated as fast from the brain as it is from the general circulation and other organs. Compare U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,929,813 and 3,962,447; Bodor et al, J. Pharm. Sci., 67, No. 5, 685 (1978). See also Bodor, "Novel Approaches for the Design of Membrane Transport Properties of Drugs", in Design of Biopharmaceutical Properties Through Prodrugs and Analogs, Roche, E. B. (ed.), APhA Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Washington, D.C., 98-135 (1976). It has also been speculated to deliver, e.g., an antitumor agent into the brain by utilizing a dihydropyridine/pyridinium redox carrier moiety therefor, but this particular hypothesis necessarily entails derivatizing the dihydropyridine/pyridinium carrier with a substituent R.sub.1 itself critically designed to control the release rate of the active drug species from the quaternary drivative thereof, as well as being critically functionally coordinated with the particular chemical and therapeutic activity/nature of the antitumor drug species itself; Bodor et al, J. Pharm. Sci., supra. Moreover, the hypothesis does not include any indication of what chemical transformations would be needed to link any specific antitumor agent (or indeed any specific drug) to an appropriate carrier moiety.
Accordingly, acutely serious need exists in this art for a truly effective generic but nonetheless flexible method for the site-specific, or sustained delivery, or both, of drug species to the brain, while at the same time avoiding the aforesaid noted and notable disadvantages and drawbacks associated with penetration of the blood-brain barrier, with dihydropyridine latentiated prodrug forms of drug species themselves comprising a pyridinium salt active nucleus, and with the necessity for introducing critically coordinated and designed, release rate-controlling substituents onto any particular drug carrier moiety.
It is also known to this art that Parkinsonism, a striatal dopamine deficiency syndrome [H. Ehringer and O. Hornykiewicz, Klin. Wsch., 38, 1236 (1960)], cannot be treated directly with dopamine, for dopamine and related catecholamines also do not cross the blood-brain barrier [B. E. Roos and G. Steg, Life Sci., 3, 351 (1964)]. L-Dopa, considered as a prodrug for dopamine, was first discovered to be useful in the treatment of Parkinsonism more than twenty years ago [A. Barbeau, Excepta Medica, Int. Congr. Ser. 38, 152 (1961); W. Birkmayer and O. Hornykiewicz, Wien. Klin. Wochnenschr., 73, 787 (1961)]. Indeed, L-Dopa is considered to be the best available treatment for Parkinsonism, but, unfortunately, at the expense of a wide variety of undesirable side effects [A. Barbeau, TIPS, 2, (11), 297 (1981)]. The peripheral side effects of L-Dopa, which range from nausea and vomiting to cardiac arrythmias and hypotension, appear to be due to one or more of the metabolic products thereof, rather than L-Dopa per se. L-Aromatic amino acid decarboxylase enzyme is responsible for the major metabolism of L-Dopa, whether prior, during or after absorption. Concurrent administration of L-Dopa with an inhibitor of aromatic amino acid decarboxylase, which should not be able to penetrate the BBB, reduces the decarboxylation of L-Dopa in peripheral tissues. Such reduction allows higher proportions of L-Dopa to reach the CNS and at the same time diminishes the peripheral side effects considerably, particularly vomiting and cardiac arrythmias, but a number of serious side effects still persist [A. Barbeau, TIPS, supra; A. Barbeau and M. Roy, Neurology, 26, 399 [(1976)]. Attempts have also been made to alleviate the well-known dissolution, absorption and metabolism problems of L-Dopa [H. Ninterberger, Biochem. Med., 5, 412 (1971); H. Shindo, T. Komai, K. Tanaka, E. Nakajima and N. Miyakoshi, Chem. Pharm. Bull., 21, 826 (1973); C. O. Rutledge and M. M. Hoehn, Nature (London), 244, 447 (1973); R. L. Bronaugh, R. J. McMurty, M. M. Hoehn and C. O. Rutledge, Biochem. Pharmacol., 24, 1317 (1975)], employing prodrug approaches [N. Bodor, K. B. Sloan, T. Higuchi and K. Sasahara, J. Med. Chem., 20, 1435 (1977); A. M. Felix, D. P. Winter, S. S. Wang, I. D. Kulesha, W. R. Pool, D. L. Hane and H. Sheppard, J. Med. Chem., 17, 422 (1974)].
Additionally, dopamine agonists, which are used in the treatment of hyperprolactinemia associated with pituitary adenomas or amenorrhea [R. F. Spark and G. Dickenstein, Ann. Int. Med., 90, 949 (1979)], also induce unwanted side effects.
Thus, especially acutely serious need exists in this art to delivery a dopaminergic agent directly and specifically to the brain, in a sustained manner, and there elicit the desired dopaminergic response, e.g, for the treatment of the Parkinsonism or hyperprolactinemia.